Dennis Schröder stood near his locker, surveying the players that were present in the room with him. The sight made him want to smile, so he did, and anybody who saw the expression on his face would have assumed that he was just happy to be starting another season in the NBA. However, the emotions behind the smile were much more sinister than that.
He turned back around and rummaged through his duffel bag. After pushing aside countless empty Gatorade bottles and half-finished packages of melted Gummi Bears, he found what he was looking for: a single, crumpled sheet of plain notebook paper. On it was a list of names, some of them crossed out:
Jeff Teague
Kyle Korver
Al Horford
Paul Millsap
Dwight Howard
It was the list of players that had been holding Dennis back, the ones who had been preventing the Hawks from being HIS team. Now, with great reverence, he found a pen in his bag and slowly crossed off the two bottom names on the list.
“It’s my team now,” he whispered to himself.